imvanya

Eurobricks Citizen
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Posts posted by imvanya


  1. Has anyone here actually got the game? It looks like 2K gave away quite a few copies to all kinds of streamers to play, so I’ve been watching LEGO 2K Drive streams quite a bit this week.

    Unfortunately, very few people felt like someone actively engaged in LEGO outside of the game, so I didn’t get the kind of insights about the building gameplay that I expected.

    Just from looking at it, though, it felt quite similar to Stud.io – the bricks snap together, you can rotate them once they are attached, the angles of the hinged connections can also be adjusted. You can change the color of each piece, with different kinds of colors available – standard, metallic, transparent, etc. You start with one of the preset chassis (a couple for each of the vehicle types – street, off-road, and boat) and you build on top of that. You can change the wheels, but the core of the selected chassis seems to be locked. So if you want to build a vehicle from a LEGO set, you might need to adapt it to build around the chassis. It also looked like you could share your designs, but no one tried that.

    What I haven’t figured out yet is how varied is the part palette. All of the basic bricks, plates, slopes, curves, wheels, windscreens, etc. are there. However, when one of the streamers got building instructions for a Speed Champions set, he quickly discovered that the Speed Champions wheel arches seemed to be missing.

    I wonder if extra pieces can be unlocked by playing the game or (hopefully not) should be bought as extra content. And considering that actual Speed Champion cars (2 most recent McLarens) are playable cars, I also wonder if this is some kind of copyright protection. Like, you shouldn’t be able build a LEGO Ferrari set because it is somehow also a Ferrari? Probably not, but I would really like to now why the part inventory is limited.

    In terms of gameplay, it looked like a combination of Forza with an open world filled with all sorts of challenges, and Mario Kart in terms of the racing gameplay – you have several types of power-ups like self-guided missiles, spiderwebs to slow down your opponents, or ghost mode to ignore all of that. You also have wacky quests and some kind of plot, but it’s obviously not the main part of the game.

    Anyway, I would love to get it one day, preferably on a sale, because it seems way too expensive at the moment. I hope more pieces will be available eventually, because I am sure everyone would love to have their favorite Speed Champions design in the game.

    I am also waiting for some of the AFOLs to try their own designs in the game, there are too many cool car MOCs out there. I’m already thinking about modifying some of my own designs.

     


  2. On 3/18/2023 at 2:45 AM, Lion King said:

    Just a silly quesiton - was the vintage taxi (GWP set) the first Modular vehicle for this modular building line?

    I think that would be https://brickset.com/sets/40448-1/Vintage-Car, which was the winning entry in the Ideas competition Build a Vintage Car. I would argue that the taxi and the truck sets we’ve got as GWPs so far are also inspired by that competition - there have been quite a few taxi and truck entries.


  3. This year's Friends sets have a few bigger sets that seem very fun to play with – 41709: Vacation Beach House41711: Emma's Art School41714: Andrea's Theatre School41721: Organic Farm. Last year's 41449: Andrea's Family House looks nice, and I can imagine expanding it with custom built stuff

    City in general is more action-packed with Last year's City subtheme Wildlife Rescue seems to have a gender-neutral appeal with lots of animals and fun play features. That said, they are not really big builds.

    Also, there's a LEGO building instructions app with a Build Together feature. The feature allows you to build a set with different people building different parts of it and then combining them together. Not all sets are featured in the app, but 2022 Friends sets 41702: Canal Houseboat and 41703: Friendship Tree House are. Brickset has a review for Build Together: Review: Build Together

    As to LEGO shows, there seems to have been LEGO Friends series over the years.


  4. 4 hours ago, the Inventor said:

    For Batou that suggested head is nice but I would like to keep them yellow for now. I made them without resorting to buying extra parts so made them of the ones I had available. Although I could have used Zane's hair and maybe another torso. 

    Fair enough. Just to clarify, my comment was meant as a criticism, it just felt like a good opportunity to share some ideas I had for a similar thing :classic:


  5. That's awesome! I love Ghost in the Shell, and at some point was thinking how to build purist minifigs. Batou was as far as I got, and only in theory:

    • I am still convinced that Chirrut Imwe's head would be a great macth for Batou
    • I always liked Batou's ponytail look, but the closest thing to it is the Pirates of the Carribean piece, which it is not available in Tan, only Dark Tan and Dark Bluish Gray.
    • Flat top pieces – both the old and the new one – used for Zane in Ninjago sets are good alternatives. Honestly, Zane looks almost like hew as inspired by Batou among other things.
    • For the body, I would go with the Collectible Minifigures Series 3 Pilot's bomber jacket.

    Regardless, I really like your interpretations. Saito, Togusa and Ishikawa are definitely my favorites.


  6. My latest model is a cement mixer. This is a model I have been working on for quite a while. It is loosely based on a 3-axle Mack Granite and the Bruder toy model in particular.

    The truck features a cab that can seat 2 minifigs. an openable hood with a brick built engine inside. The drum is brick-built, so unfortunatley I did not manage to make it hollow, and driven by the truck's 2nd axle. I also included a discharge chute with an extra extension section.

    I am very happy to have finally finished this model and quite satisfied with the result. Some of the connections, specifically the filling funnel and the ladder, may be somewhat flimsy if built with real bricks, but I have not had the chance to check it myself. I also had to make the Tile 2 x 4 with Silver Car Grille Pattern piece myself as it is not available in either the Stud.io or Mecabricks library. It has only been used in Juniors/4+ sets, which could explain why it is missing.

    51823646866_c49157e506_c.jpg

    51823986884_92f47095f7_c.jpg

    51822693127_eb0d63fe28_z.jpg

    The .io file is available at my Bricksafe here, the model is also available at Mecabricks here. You can get PDF instructions at my Bricksafe here.


  7. With LEGO having a BMW license with 2 Technic motorbikes released, I wonder if we could see an M4. I was looking at the 2022 sets and noticed the new projectile launcher piece. I can definitely see it used for a front grille build. A pic for reference, see the shooters on the green car's hood:

    AVvXsEj88RUcV2ThHc2su31JqBz1iGLEEh7jy5nz

     


  8. 4 minutes ago, MinusAndy said:

    Ironically I think this fiendishly complex set of mechanisms is also some of your best looking bodywork! I think it looks and works great and it’s really ambitious.

    Totally agree! Any troubles you had with the bodywork definitely paid off. The shape of the front is great, it's curved in multiple directions, yet it still incorporates some details like the headlights and looks just as well when in the narrowed plane configuration. Great job!


  9. One of the first things that ocurred to me when I saw this set was "This would make a great part pack for a Borderlands 2 Bandit Technical MOC". Of course, the Borderlands truck has independent suspension on both axles, so the wishbones, steering and all that would have to come from somwhere else. But otherwise 42139 already looks somewhat similar.

    51750551183_2872ca7476_c.jpg

    51751183145_98bf260c43_c.jpg


  10. 9 hours ago, Jeff of Clubs said:

    Hey, gang. How does one go about posting 'hidden content' within a post? Thanks you!

    Select the part of the post that you would like to hide and use the Spoiler tool (eye icon in the toolbar).

    Spoiler

    Worked for me :wink:


  11. 6 minutes ago, astyanax said:

    Can you explain what's wrong? I do care about legality, but I see no problem here: there are no pin endings stuck halfway a pinhole. Or are you merely taking issue with the strength of the construction?

    If you look closely, there is a small ridge that goes across the middle of the 2-stud wide section of the 3L pin with friction:

    6558.png

    Very likely, having that connector or any 1-stud wide part with a pin hole on that ridge would stress both the pin and the part. Even on the frictionless 3l pin there is a similar, though less pronounced ridge:

    32556.png

    By contrast, the new 3L frictionless pin with stop appears to have no ridges at all:

    77765.png